Vijayawda : A court in Andhra Pradesh on Friday sent AgriGold chairman A.Venkata Rama Rao and managing director A.V.S. Narayana Rao to judicial custody for 14 days in a case of alleged illegal deposits.

The Crime Investigation Department (CID), which arrested the duo on Thursday night, presented them before the second additional metropolitan court in Eluru in West Godavari district.

A group of depositors tried to stop the police vehicle carrying them. The police had to intervene to disperse the protestors.

The management of AgriGold Farm Estates India allegedly collected deposits to the tune of Rs.7,000 crore from depositors in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka and other states without statutory permission. Over 32 lakh people invested their life savings in the company.

The arrests were made a few days after the High Court of Judicature at Hyderabad for both Andhra Pradesh and Telangana pulled up the CID for "slackness" in the investigation and its failure to arrest the company management.

The high court also threatened to hand over the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

The arrests were made a few hours before the case was to come up for hearing in the high court.

The high court, which resumed hearing on Friday, adjourned it to February 19.

The AgriGold management submitted to the court list of its assets. The judicial committee, constituted by the court to auction the properties, is scheduled to meet on Friday evening.

The state government handed over the case to the CID about two years ago but the depositors moved the court over the delay in investigations.

Telangana AgriGold Customers and Agents' Welfare Association filed a petition seeking probe either by the CBI or Enforcement Directorate.

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COMMENTS

sreedevi

7 months ago

Please let me know the total outcome. Are we Investors going to get back our hard earned money or not. For how many days/ months/ years we have to wait to get back our own hard earned money?

Gopalakrishnan T V

10 months ago

Thank God some action is taken. There are are several farm lands, farm club farm resorts etc operating in the country and god alone knows whom they are reporting and how their transactions are regulated or accounted for? There is a mushroom growth of such farm land clubs in and around major cities and the city dwellers are lured / attracted to invest in such lands and made members of farm clubs. The operators purchase huge parcels of agricultural lands from innocent farmers and convert these lands into farm lands and sold to prospective and innocent customers with some incentives and they are all trapped. Transactions are all in black money except for small portion and there is a continuous extortion of money in the garb of maintenance of farm lands. They do not provide any accounts and they do not give anything in writing. Only they make periodical demands of money and they open and close accounts very fast perhaps to escape scrutiny or any trail. The loss of agricultural production, the loss of revenues to the State Governments and generation of black money and illegal activities are the result. The case in hand is perhaps only a tip of the iceberg. It should be an eye opener to the authorities to keep a watch on many such operators in and around major cities taking advantage of the of the rich middle class seen of late.